Exodus, Humanity's Final Inheritor
by ZaphodDude
Summary: Humanity as a whole has been through many troubling times. Events both created by themselves as well as situations that would appear out of nowhere as if by magic. This situation, however, could be their last. When faced with their extinction at the hands of the alien race knocking on their doorstep, anything is acceptable. The Exodus project was a necessity.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Glimpse of a past time

The typing from a keyboard could be heard within a dimly lit room at the end of a bleak and dusty corridor. A figure was working diligently at their desk writing up the work and findings from the latest of tests into a neat, concise report. The paragraphs going into depth about all their results making sure not to miss a single piece, after all an error this late into the proceedings would be disastrous.

The door to the figure's workspace creaked open, and a woman carrying a cup of coffee slowly entered, gently closing the door behind her so as not to disturb anyone else that might be working late into the night.

"This is the third night in a row that I've found you like this, you'll burn yourself out if you keep this up" she said in a calm and delicate voice as she set the coffee down onto the right-hand side of the figures desk and took a seat in the unused chair next to him.

"While that may be true dear, I believe I can manage", the man said with a slight chuckle. Finding that he was already finished with all his work, he made sure to save it and shut the lid of the laptop. He took the coffee offered and took a sip, black, but with precisely one and a half teaspoons of sugar, he thought absentmindedly as he savoured the flavour. "Time is of the essence. One man having a little less sleep, in my opinion, is a worthwhile trade" he said in a tired voice but still with a slight grin across his face.

"I suppose it is, how far through are you with writing the final report?".

"I just finished it as you made your way in, we should be commencing the final procedures within a few days". The woman looked down into her lap as she fidgeted with her fingers, "Do you think it will be ready in time?".

The man looked away slowly thinking to himself as he came up with an answer. Looking back to the woman, he spoke in a calm voice, "We can only hope so".

Approximately 3 Days Later

Standing in front of a 2-meter tall vat were a man and his wife. The woman was resting on the shoulder of the gentlemen next to her. Both seemed to be content to stand there endlessly. The vat that they were looking into contained a teenager that couldn't be over the age of 17. The boy was of average height and had short dirty blonde hair that seemed to be slowly swaying as he took shallow breaths through the tubing that down his throat. To the naked eye, it would seem strange that such a normal-looking boy was in this situation. From an outsiders perspective, it would seem as though nothing was wrong with him. He could just as easily be walking around having a normal life. Well as normal a life as you can get nowadays.

No, the issue wasn't that simple. The child had suffered from a disease that affected the very DNA. This disease was a mutation of the known disease called Marfan Syndrome, it was a disease of the connective tissue and can affect the heart, skeleton, eyes, blood vessels and nervous system. It was curable, the advancements in medicines had been outstanding. However, it would still take time. Five years to be precise. Five years of being in this specially designed vat. This seemed like a curse had been placed on the once active and energetic boy. However, it seems now like it was in fact, a blessing.

Being placed into this vat had been the one thing that saved him in the end from the event plaguing humanity. He didn't know about that yet though, he was only planned to be in there till the doctors cured him. In his mind, he'll be waking up to his parents smiling at him and doctors walking him through diagnostics.

The woman, not looking away from the vat, spoke to her husband in a hesitant tone. "Do you think what we're doing is the right thing? Is this what he would have wanted?"

The man turned to look down at his wife and pulled her closer to him. "Yes", he said simply "He would have wanted a chance to explore the world, he was always an adventurous one". Thoughts of the past started to come to his mind. The time that his son begged him to tell him about the world and all of its different countries. Or even simple things like the time he asked what the wind smelled like. It brought a sad smile onto his face.

"He'll be all alone though, no-one will be there for him when he awakes", the woman said quietly. "There'd be no-one to guide him, no-one to talk to. It'll be just void of anything."

"That's not entirely true. He'll have Hal there to guide him and be there for him when we cant."

From behind a man in a white lad coat calmly approached the couple, "All the procedures are in place, we are ready to initiate the process" he said respectfully. The gentleman thanked him and turned back to the vat. "Just give us a few moments alone with him", the man nodded and made his way out of the room.

"You know that this will be the last time you're going to be able to see him".

"I know", she said in a soft tone. "Do you think he'll resent us?".

The man had a thoughtful expression on his face as he came up with an answer. "I think he'll understand."

The woman walked up slowly to the vat panel and pressed her palm against the glass. "I wish we could talk or explain to him what's going on, about why we're doing what we're doing. About how much we wish we could be with him. About how much we love him".

"He'll know dear. There's no doubt in my mind that he will realise that as parents we couldn't possibly love him more".

A tear rolled down the woman's face as she gazed at her son for the last time, trying to burn the image of him in her mind so to not forget a single detail.

The man slowly backed away from the vat, holding on to the woman's hand as he does so. He paused for a second before he felt her join him in walking away, closing the door behind them as they left he gave the signal to the lab operator to initiate the procedure.

While taking slow steps down the corridor, the sound of machinery and gears could be heard in the background, a loud and deep bang as the locking mechanism on the door shut tight.

This is my first time ever writing a story soooo... be kind?


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Awakening

In the dark, dingy room LED lights began to flicker on after centuries of inactivity. One by one, they slowly started to illuminate the corridors and rooms of the underground bunker. The ventilation systems began to clear the dirty air of all the dust that had been obscuring the view. Down the end of one such corridor, a bolted door started to come into view its metal frame covered in a two-inch-thick layer of dust. Beyond this door, the structure containing a glass vat could be seen opening and lowering its occupant to the floor. A sequence began its countdown and tubes began to inject the boy with a compound to make him wake up from his long slumber. Just as his eyes began to shift underneath his eyelids the liquid drained from the vat. A hand began to reach to the front of the glass. The vat opened and the boy stepped out and into the empty room.

Cold. That's the first thing that came to his mind as he took the step out of the vat. He wiped his eyes with his hands so to not get anything inside them and had the first look of his surroundings. "Where the hell am I?" It was an empty room, with no-one in sight. There were a few floor to ceiling cabinets and a metal door at the far end but not much else. Looking down, he noticed that he was covered in a small layer of the slime substance from the vat that he just climbed out from as well as only wearing some boxers to protect his modesty.

First things first he thought, I'm gonna need to get this slime off me and then get some suitable clothes somehow the after that I can figure out where I am. He decided to search the cupboards for anything that he could use to clean himself off with. Lucky one of them had a group of towels and a set of generic overalls that he could wear.

Stepping towards the door, he searched for a handle he could use to open it with. After fumbling around, he finally came across a switch on the far righthand side. Quickly flicking it on caused the door to unseal itself and roll into the wall. Immediately he was hit with a wall of stagnant air that poured from the opening. After regaining his composure, he slowly allowed his gaze to flick across the new space he found himself in. A generic looking hallway with doors every ten metres or so. Making his way to the first door, he gently opened it to find an empty waiting room with chairs stacked along one wall. As he kept walking down the hallway he saw more of the same situation. Empty rooms that looked as though they hadn't been used in decades. Items just left covered in a copious amount of dust. In one room, the ceiling even semed to giveaway causing massive amounts of debris to just sit in the middle undisturbed.

"Okay, I'm starting to think this place is a bloody ghost town or something." Finally, after searching most of the rooms on this floor he came across one that was slightly different than the others. This room had a large group of computers along the back wall along with some storage crates on either side, that wasn't the thing that caught his attention though. No, that honour went to the android standing in the centre of the room. He'd never seen anything like it, it was hard to tell because of the dust if it was meant to be glossy or matt, but it was black in colour overall. It was roughly 7ft tall, and it had silver accents on some of the edges along its arms and torso to emphasise its overall shape. Its head was the most striking feature though. It didn't seem to have any noticeable eyes, just an oval looking dome making up the front half, sort of like a visor. Around this oval dome was a metal trim coming from the chin section all the way to the back of the head.

Slowly stepping closer, he brushed his hand across the front of the visor to take a look inside. As his face was millimetres away from the visor, a neon blue iris blinked back at him.

"What the fuck!?" Falling away from the android, he scurried backwards till his back touched the wall with a resounding thump. The android slowly walked forward and offered its hand to him "Ah Master Dante, this android is excited to see you have finally awoken," it exclaimed cheerfully in a robotic male voice. Dante? Is that my name? "What the hell are you?" Dante asked, still staring passed the offered hand and into its eye, "This is a first-generation android, classification number 117-Hal at your service." Dante took its hand into his and allowed it to pull him back into a standing position. "You said my name was Dante, how would you know my name but I didn't?". "Files in my databases included a photograph of you along with general medical information". Alright, he thought, that's one mystery down. "A first-generation android?" "Yes, this android was produced in the mid-2040s to aid humans in a variety of endeavours ranging from mechanical work to military use."

Dante stood still looking over the android once more. "Why are you here? Where is here? Where is everyone?" Dante said in a hurried fashion. 117-Hal paused for a brief moment before answering him, seemingly looking through its data banks for information regarding those topics. "This unit was assigned to Dante Edwards on the 29th November 2047, its main focus is to guide and protect. This is the underground advanced medical facility Ouroboros. This facility has been abandoned since this units hibernation, no records can be found."

Dante looked downcast that he wouldn't be finding any answers any time soon about his predicament. "Perhaps we should search for anything useful within this bunker", said 117-Hal in its monotone voice. "Anything that can shine some light on this would be super useful" Dante agreed as he started walking towards one of the supply crates next to the side of the wall. After dusting it off and opening it with a heave, he spotted some black clothing along with a camo backpack, food and water rations and finally a multitool device, probably for Hal, he thought.

The second crate was a bit more interesting than the previous one but the looks of its exterior. It was a full metal casing that looked like it could take a hit or two. When trying to open it, Dante only managed to lift it about 2 inches before having to drop it back again due to the weight of the cover. "Bloody hell that's heavy". "Maybe I could be of assistance" Hal began walking towards it and quickly lifted the cover without any noticeable struggles. "I'm able to lift a weight of more than 1 tonne before my motors will fail."

Walking around the robot, still holding the cover above its head, he inspected the contents. Inside was a plethora of electronic devices presumably for Hal to be equipped with. There was a portable scanner, a deployable shield as well as boosters for his legs. In addition to this were an assortment of replacement parts in case hal was damaged. "It's like they expect you to fight in a war" Dante said nervously. He continued looking through until he found what seemed to be a back strapped sheath covering a 5ft long sword as well a pistol of some nature. Taking the sword out of the container, Dante slowly grabbed the handle and pulled, the light from the ceiling amazingly glinted across the blade. "Awesome" he murmured absentmindedly. "Hal, what are your thoughts on all this equipment here?", "Seems like preparation for a worst-case scenario situation" he replied. Picking up the pistol, he inspected it quickly taking note of the fact that there wasn't any ammunition to go along with it. "What the hell does this fire if it doesn't have any bullets to load it with".

A loud bang could be heard throughout the complex. Dante looked up to find a large hole not existed in the ceiling with what looked like burn makes around the edges. "Seems like the weapon you just fired utilises concentrated light in minuscule beams roughly 2 centimetres in length". Dante looking sheepish slowly put the pistol back into its holder.

After a few minutes of changing into the new clothes and packing the equipment that he could carry into his backpack, Dante strapped the sword across his back and placed the pistol on his hip. Anything else was put into the metal container that Hal conveniently, could attach to his back.

"Alright, now that we're prepared for war we should probably look for a way out of here and try to find some people outside, maybe they will know what's happening". "Agreed" Hal replied.

As they walked upwards, towards where they presumed that they would find an exit, they noticed that a majority of the side hallways were caved in with large chunks of debris blocking the paths. Gradually they made there way upwards only finding empty rooms and dead ends. After an hour of walking, they finally managed to find themselves in front of a fortified doorway. Much too heavy for Dante to push open, he looked towards Hal to see if he would be able to force it open. "Do you think you'd be able to make that budge?" he asked. Walking up to the door, Hal found a handhold and slowly started to inch the door open.

Sunlight started to filter through the crack, causing Dante to shut his eyes and place his hand in front of his face to block it out. As his eyes adjusted to the new lighting, he started to make out the vague shape of buildings.

He Slowly wandered out and was immediately hit with the heat of the new environment. It was swelteringly hot. Another thing that he noticed was that he wasn't walking on solid ground. Instead, there were just massive amounts of sand. Finally, as his eyes fully adjusted to the light, he could get a clear view of his surroundings.

Ruins in a desert. He was stuck amongst a bunch of rundown buildings filled with sand dunes. "What the actual FUCK is this!" He shouted, "Where the hell is everyone!". "Shouting won't change anything Dante", Hal said calmly, "It appears that we were down in that bunker for a very long time".

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Thanks to those who pointed out the strange formatting errors that happened when I posted this the first time and took time to msg me about it. Much very appreciated. Still not too sure what caused it but ill try and make sure it doesn't happen again in the future.

Just so people know I'm writing to relax so the update schedule for anything I write will be very sporadic. But to give you an estimate I generally want to write around 1000 words a day and I do have a storyline already vaguely planned out.

Cheers for the views. Peace


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: A New World

It's been roughly two days since they had exited the bunker. So far, they hadn't found anything or anyone in this desolate landscape. Just more run-down buildings and vast dunes, they had searched them for any clues that could give them an idea of how long they had been virtually dead to the world for but had no luck. All the buildings were just empty husks with nothing inside them, not even a bed or a chair much to Dantes dismay. After spending the first day searching the nearby buildings, they took shelter overnight inside what they assumed was once a town hall.

Dante looked over towards Hal as the android was scanning the building to see if he could accurately date the age of the structure. "It seems as though this structure has been left in disrepair for a great duration of time, far too long to get an accurate representation of its age." He walked over towards where Dante was sitting and sat on his left. "I would recommend sleeping, we should continue searching the area tomorrow for any clues". "I'm not tired Hal", Dante said bluntly. The android looked over towards him and inclined his head to the side. "It wouldn't be logical for you to tire yourself out now, besides there isn't much you can do at this time of night." Dante just sat there for a moment before getting up and walking towards the window, gazing at the view.

It might just be piles of rubble and ruined buildings, but under the illumination of the moonlight, it made for an eye-catching scene. He could see passed the ruins and off into the distance, the many desert dunes creating the illusion of ocean waves. He must have been looking out towards the view for a while for Hal had managed to walk up behind him at some point, "Do you think there is anyone around here Hal?" "Yes, it's doubtful that one person would be left in the world." "Unlikely but not impossible?" he replied in a questioning voice. Hal remained quiet and turned to look towards the view also. Dante returned to his resting position earlier and used his backpack as a makeshift pillow. As he started to fall asleep, he faintly heard Hal reply to his question. "It has been one day, Dante. We have yet to step into this new world. Don't lose hope just yet." He didn't manage to reply before sleep took him into its warm embrace.

Waking up the next morning was not a fun affair. He dreamt of a different morning, one where he woke in a room with blue walls and many posters capturing figures striking various poses. He stood up from the incredibly comfy bed and walked towards the door, he could faintly hear chatter down the corridor. Slowly making his way forwards he leant over the bannister that overlooked the dining room and saw the blurred images of a man and a woman. They seemed to be talking while having toast along with a coffee. "Bout time you got up, we've been waiting for you", the woman said in a cheerful tone. "Come on down ill dish you up some of the bacon that's left". Dante slowly made his way downstairs and sat down next to the man. "You ready for the game today?" "I know I am the rangers are gonna destroy the opposition". Dante started looking between the two while slowly chewing the bacon. "Are you alright dear? You're being awfully quiet today". Dante turned to face her with an unfocused look in his eye, "I don't know I'm, very confused rn" he said in a staggered manner. The woman walked forward and gently placed her hand on his head, "Oh baby, it seems that you're burning up". The man stood from his sitting position and leaned over to check aswell. "Better get back to bed little man, we can always go see the rangers another time". They took him back to the room that he awoke from and placed him back into the bed. "Get some rest mate. We can play baseball in the park if your feeling better" the man said in an optimistic tone. The woman gently placed a damp cloth on to his head, "Night dear make sure to get to sleep, and no phone!", they started to walk out of the room before he could even mutter a word. "Wait," he said weakly, "who are you?" The two looked at each other and then back towards him. "Aw my poor baby, your temperature must really be getting to you". That was the last he heard as they backed out of the room and shut the door behind them. It was utterly pitch black for a few moments before he slowly closed his eyes.

Dante shot up from his sleeping position. He was sweating profusely down his forehead. Trying to calm himself down he slowed his breaths back to a regular rate before putting his head into his palms. "What the hell was that? A dream or a memory?" Whatever that was doesn't matter now though I guess. Not when there isn't anyone else here.

Slowly standing up looking through his bag he pulled out one of his rations. He ate in silence, a fact that he realised would probably be a constant in this new place. Noticing that Hal wasn't in the area where Dante thought the android was last night, he decided to see if he had already started looking through any of the adjacent buildings for things of use. Or possibly an answer. Hopefully, the latter.

He made sure that nothing was left behind and that he had both the sword and pistol strapped in their correct position before walking out of the house. He waited until his eyes adjusted to the glaring sun before looking around the immediate area for the tall android. "Hey, Hal! You out here somewhere?" No reply was heard. Where could he have gone, he thought to himself. Looking around once again, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. It seemed as though the android was walking away from his position towards a large open area, presumably what used to be the town centre. Dante lost sight of him turning a corner in the distance, it was difficult to make out due to the waves of heat coming off the ground. Dante sighed, "Would it kill him to at least wake me before searching around." Slowly making his way towards where he last saw him walking he tried to figure out which pathway Hal had taken, there were three different ones that he could have taken making it even more difficult was the fact that each had a turn after around 20 metres in. Meaning that he couldn't just look down one of them till he found him. Dante sighed once more and just chose the 3rd one randomly. "Not like I've got much else to do," he said to himself.

He slowly made his way down the path, taking in his surroundings so he would be able to remember which way he came from. He turned another corner and was greatly relieved that he saw a Hal in the distance even though the heat waves were still making things blurred. "Why'd you just walk away without me?" he shouted towards him, "It's boring out here as it is, let alone without someone to talk to!" Hal still didn't seem to hear him, or so he thought. Just as he was about to shout once more Hal turned around and faced him. "Find anything useful?" Dante asked, slightly confused as the normally talkative android still didn't seem to acknowledge that he heard him. Maybe I'm still too far away for him to hear me, he thought to himself. He looked over again and saw that Hal was now walking towards him.

As Hal got closer, he could make out more details about him. It was confusing. He seemed bulkier, and the proportions were wrong. As Dante was coming to these conclusions, the figure changed his pace again. It was now close to full-on sprinting towards him. It was only 100 metres away from him now, and he could safely say that it was most definitely not Hal. Its head was a perfect sphere and had horn-like protrusions at the very top. Its body was segmented, it had a slightly wider section on the bottom which joined onto a thinner but longer section as it got closer to the head.

"What the fuck are you?" Dante said under his breath as he took several steps back. The new machine didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon as it kept its pace towards him, now only 50 metres away. "What the hell do I do now? It's not as if id be able to outrun that thing in this sand," thinking quickly as the robot was within 10 metres Dante jumped to his left, narrowly avoiding being impaled by the horns on the robots head. As he stood back up, he reached up towards the blade strapped to his back. He held it in front of him, hoping it would provide some protection. The blade was noticeably shaking side to side as it was pointed towards the machine.

The machine seemed to slide to a halt before turning back towards him. It's now visible red eyes glaring at him. It started to run towards him again, its joints screeching as it did so. As the machine approached Dante screwed his eyes shut and swung in an upwards diagonal arch. He could feel the blade meeting resistance before it being jolted free. Dante heard a crash in the sand next to him. Opening his eyes slightly, he was the right arm of the machine on top of the sand. Its owner was a metre beyond it kneeling over holding itself up with its one remaining arm. It turned to look at him again. Making a move to once again charge.

Suddenly there was a shadow cast above it. 'CRASH!'

As the sand and dust were settling the welcoming view of Hal emerged. His tall frame standing over the now crushed machine. "Dante, are you injured?" he said concerningly. Dante replied by shaking his head, not trusting his mouth to be able to formulate sentences at that particular time. Hal stood off the crushed machine and walked towards him. "Your heart rate is still increasing Dante. You need to slow your breathing." He nodded again and forced his heart rate to slow down by taking shallow breaths.

"What the hell was that thing?" he asked Hal. "From what I can gather, they're a simplistic machine linked to a higher command network. And from your encounter, they're the main objective seems to be attacking unrecognised personnel." From the distance, slight thumpings could be heard. "Must be more of them, can u carry this one? Maybe you could hack into it to find out more." "Yes, it should be easy enough." He lifted the flattened machine into his arms. "Let's make haste into the house we took refuge in last night, from there we can observe if any more come our way and we can study this one."

Once back into the house Dante immediately took a breather. The adrenaline from the encounter was now fully wearing off he realised just how close he had come to his death. Shaking slightly, he just leant back against the wall and calmed himself down.

For the next 20 minutes, he just watched Hal scan and inspect the machine. After a while he had any parts that were deemed useful set-aside, and the husk was left in the corner as it wouldn't provide anything useful. "So found anything?" he asked. Hal turned to him and relayed what he had discovered. "Not as much as I would like I'm afraid, the coding and commands that the unit received weren't in any known language that I have in my databases. However, I did manage to find out that this unit was connected to 99 other units of various models."

"I take it that you mean to say there's 99 more of those things lurking around here." He said sourly, great just what I needed strange machine attacking me out of nowhere he thought to himself. "Yes I assume so, there was also some video files of the last week stored inside its joint memory with the other machines connected to it." "It showed... something interesting." Dante shut his eyes and groaned, "Interesting in the way that there are even stranger things around here?" "Well, I guess you could say that, let me show you."

From Hals visor a projection was played onto the wall. At first, all it showed were a large group of the machines walking towards a building. Then suddenly from outside of the frame a sword pierced through the further most forward machine. Sparks were flying from its shell. The next moment a figure landed onto another one sending it over the head of the machine they were viewing from. It was mostly a blur however, one thing was for sure, the figure was much slender than the machines and it consisted of primarily black with the exception of its face and hair. Through the blurred images, the only details that Dante could see were a porcelain face and silver coloured hair. Suddenly the figure blurred out of view and the next moment a sword could be seen extruding from the torso of the machine the image cuts off after that.

Hal turned off the projection and turned towards Dante's shocked expression. "Seems to me, like we may not be so alone after all."

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Just gotta say, whenever I'm writing sections for this story I'm always listening to Rozen - Nier: Glory to Mankind on Spotify. Really sets the tone. The songs are so brilliant I can just listen to them for hours.


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